LDP, Nippon Ishin Start Talks on Secondary Capital Plan

Tokyo, Nov. 12 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its new coalition partner, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), have launched talks in earnest on a plan to set up the nation’s secondary capital. At the first meeting of the two parties’ joint panel on governance system reform Tuesday, Nippon Ishin presented an outline of a planned lawmaker-sponsored bill to establish a secondary capital. The LDP explained progress in internal discussions on backup systems in preparation for a possible major earthquake that could strike directly under Tokyo and areas around the Japanese capital. Specific issues to be discussed by the panel will be picked at its next meeting that will take place next week at the earliest. The LDP and Nippon Ishin have decided to form five panels in line with the launch of their coalition government. The governance system reform panel held the first meeting ahead of the other four, marking the start of full-scale talks on putting their coalition agreements into action. “It is crucial to make Japan more disaster-resilient,” Nippon Ishin policy chief Alex Saito, who represents the party at the governance system reform panel, said at Tuesday’s meeting, stressing the need to establish a secondary capital. The LDP-Nippon Ishin coalition agreements call for, among others, enacting legislation to build a secondary capital at next year’s ordinary session of the Diet, the country’s parliament. Mentioning this, former agriculture minister Ichiro Miyashita, the LDP’s representative at the panel, said, “I will work hard to achieve results.” The other four joint panels are designed to respectively address the electoral system including a cut in the number of seats in the House of Representatives, social security reform, political funds and the drafting of clauses for a potential constitutional revision. The four panels are slated to hold their first meetings by Thursday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]